[linux-audio-user] Migration from OSS Pro to ALSA

Hi, I am building a new box for audio (Gentoo Linux) and have decided to use ALSA instead of OSS pro which I have always used. Having never used ALSA I was woundering if anyone can offer tips or highlight the main differences. My main soundcard is a M-Audio Delta Dio 2496 (ice1712) and my secondary card is the onboard CMedia 8738. Since Gentoo Linux uses devfs, one concern I have is how to know what device names the input/outputs will have. I have read through a some docs on ALSA and also the ALSA guide on Gentoo.org and they do not appear to address this issue as they are geared for consumer cards it seems. I use the M-Audio often to make DAT > PC (via SPFIF) transfers. With OSS Pro I can just "cat /dev/soundstat" to retrive info about what each device name in /dev actually is. Also, if I understand right, ALSA uses /dev/audio* as well as /dev/dsp* ? I am a bit confused about the envy24control setup as well as how to "unlock" the sample rate for the pro card. I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions on making the switch or anything that may be helpful. -- Robert Brown